Carp prove elusive in area waters

In search of smoked carp, Dawson Smith, left, and Derek Smith take aim at carp swimming in the flooded flats on Boyd Lake. (Dennis Smith / Special to the Reporter-Herald)

For as long as I can remember, carp have been considered trash fish by the vast majority of anglers. And almost everyone I know has heard the old joke about cooking carp on a cedar plank with herbs and spices over a bed of coals then throwing the carp away and eating the plank. I've never done that, but I have tried cooking them several different ways, none of which tasted very good. They're fun to catch, but not many people stateside think of carp as good to eat.

On the other hand, in Europe and Asia, carp are common table fare, and in some countries even considered a delicacy.

When I was a kid, the little old German lady down the road used to give my brother and me 25 cents for every carp we caught. She would place them in an outside tub of water for several days and change the water regularly explaining the treatment purged them of any muddy taste. She swore they were delicious.

And then a few years ago, a sales rep for a live bait distribution company told me he personally used to farm carp for the restaurant industry in Denver before he began delivering bait fish and night crawlers to regional tackle shops.

He said that, cared for and prepared properly, carp is as good to eat as any other game fish, and that much of what is served as fish sandwiches in fast food restaurants is likely to be carp unless the menu says otherwise.

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I have no idea if he was pulling my leg or not, but it seems believable. After all, many folks complain that deer, elk, moose and antelope tastes "gamey," too — until they've had it prepared by someone who knows how to care for and cook it properly. It seems reasonable the same logic would apply to carp.

Recently, I've been seeing recipes for carp in the cooking sections of outdoor magazines and on You Tube videos. One in particular caught my eye this week.

A Field & Stream column called The Wild Chef calls for filleting the carp immediately after the catch, then brining and smoking the fillets over an alder or apple wood fire. Once the smoked fillets have cooled in the frig for awhile, the flesh is crumbled together with chopped onion, herbs and breadcrumbs and shaped into patties to be reheated quickly in an oven or a grill.

It sounded so good, the boys and I set out this weekend with bows and arrows to get some carp. Carp are extremely hook shy, so bow fishing has always been more reliable for us than fishing for them with a baited line.

We waded the flooded timber stands surrounding Lone Tree Reservoir and Boyd Lake where carp have been known to congregate in great numbers this time of year, but found very few. We wondered if maybe they'd heard about that recipe too, and decided to make themselves scarce.

Dennis Smith is a Loveland outdoors writer and photographer, and his freelance work is published nationally. Smith's Home Waters column appears on the first and third Thursdays of the month. He can be reached at Dsmith7136@msn.com.